Burial in Corona's time ... Where did the bodies of the victims of the virus disappear in Iran?

Al-Jazeera Net-Tehran

With the increasing number of deaths from the emerging corona virus "Covid-19" in Iran, leaked pictures of the procedures for burying the bodies of the victims have terrified the street of the danger of the spreading disease, so what is the Iranian protocol to limit the spread of the deadly virus?

After days of conflicting reports about the Iranian Ministry of Health’s failure to deliver the corpses of coronavirus deaths to their relatives and washing and burial procedures in their shoulders, all rumors turned to certainty after a number of photos leaked about the burial of the victims under strict measures.

The pictures show that a number of medical teams are burying the bodies wrapped with plastic cover in a hole that appears to be deeper than ordinary graves without the presence of any of the relatives of the victims, which sparked panic among public opinion in Iran. Relatives of the victims also asked how the bodies were washed and shrouded.

Special protocol
For his part, the head of the Hospitals and Medical Services Department of the Iranian Ministry of Health, Reza Kalbira, issued a clarification regarding his ministry's adoption of a health protocol to bury deaths due to infectious diseases, and attributed the reason not to hand over the dead bodies to their families to the rapid spread of the virus to others.

Not only was the Iranian protocol not to hand over the dead bodies to their relatives, but rather was devoted to cemeteries to bury corona deaths far from other graves, as revealed by the head of the Center for Relations and International Affairs in the Tehran municipality, Ghulam Hussein Mohammadi.

The Iranian official explained that the hospital deaths are wrapped with a special cover, and then eight trained people - according to the protocol - adopt the task of transporting the bodies to the graves through a passageway far from what is used by ordinary people, and burying them in places designated for deaths of infectious diseases without removing them from the cover or washing them.

Jurisprudence vision
Although Muhammadi affirmed that burial procedures are carried out in accordance with Islamic law, taking into account the sanctity of the nation’s dead, his statement has sparked an uproar over the necessity of washing and burying Muslims ’dead. What is the doctrinal vision regarding Corona deaths?

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, advised that less duty was required with regard to washing, milling, shrouding and holding the funeral prayer for the dead of Corona.

As for the Sunni Fatwa House in the Iranian Kurdistan region, in western Iran, it issued a fatwa permitting burial of corona deaths without washing and shrouding, given the possibility of transmitting the virus from it to those in charge of washing and washing procedures and threatening their lives at risk.

Sanitary measures
Some Iranian-speaking Persian media have published reports on the implementation of the protocol, stressing that there is no objection to the medical authorities of the families of the victims having the last look at the body in the hospital, after taking health measures without touching the body.

The Iranian medical authorities are talking to the head of the family of the deceased about the risks of receiving the body, and asking him to control the feelings of the family and act wisely to limit the spread of the virus, which has received attentive ears among the Iranian people, according to observers.

The protocol also considers all that remains of the deceased, such as clothes, as infectious substances that must be disposed of according to the health rules followed in the country.

The protocol requires that the grave be not less than two meters deep and that the body cover be sprayed with sterile fluids or water solution with lime. The ambulance is sterilized and everything that comes into contact with the body is taken to the cemetery.

Iran is witnessing an accelerating and alarming spread of the Coruna virus, despite the announced preventive measures, which include the suspension of studies in schools and universities.

And Ali Reza Raisi, Iranian Deputy Minister of Health, announced on Tuesday noon that the number of deaths due to the Corona virus in the country had risen to 77, while the number of infections reached 2336.

Among those who died in the last hours of Iran was a member of the Expediency Council, Muhammad Mir Mohammadi, 71, who died in a hospital in Tehran, after being infected with the Corona virus.

The authorities indicated that among the injured were 23 parliamentarians, along with many officials and religious scholars.